Articles

What Noah Knew: Old models for new conditions

What follows is an abridged version of the speech given by Fred Wolf, a Halliburton representative who spoke at the Lexis-Nexis Catastrophic Loss conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida on May 9, 2006.

The Yes Men

Iranian Pop Phenomenon Javad Yassari Caught on Film

One of the very few perks of being an Iranian these days is having the chance to sit back and take a good look at yourself in the mirror. You can find, acknowledge, and accept flaws, or fall in love with parts you like.

Houman Mortazavi

A Disclosure

In which the editors collaborate with an artist to commission a newsroom graphic designer to visually render the report of the International Independent Investigation Commission Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1595 (otherwise known as the Mehlis report).

Bidoun

Narges and The Case of Iranian Docudrama: If Dante had come with illustrations

It was around 10 pm when I asked my friend to call me a taxi.

Sohrab Mohebbi

Archetypal Intellectuals, Devastated Revolutionaries, Kitsch Mythologies, and a Writer Who Dared to Look at Herself: The Disenchanted

It is the mid-90s, and I’m sitting in a bar, drinking a cold Stella beer. I am somewhere on the Sinai coast. Next to me, an older man is sitting sipping his whiskey-neat. He looks like someone who works with money…

Hassan Khan

Soda as Politick: When they think of democracy they think of Coca-Cola

Shortly after taking possession of the Golan Heights in June of 1967, Israeli Defense Forces entered the abandoned headquarters of the Syrian Army and in the flush of victory stripped down a Pepsi-Cola marquee — battered but still aloft — and hoisted a gleaming new Coca-Cola sign in its place.

Curtis Brown

A Conversation with Orhan Pamuk

On censorship, the crime of publicly denigrating Turkish identity, Orientalism and “posing as a victim,” and the pitfalls of being called upon to represent one’s country.

Lex ter Braak

A Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist

The most prolific curator of his generation reflects on the impulse to interview and the massive archive that results. “The whole project is a complex dynamic system with feedback loops — a learning system.”

Nav Haq

A Conversation with Shahidul Alam

Art, defiance, and the price to be paid: cut phone lines, cancelled exhibitions, and stabbings by unknown assailants. “To be a taxpayer and therefore an accomplice to the most brutal nation on earth does require a lot of redemption!”

Naeem Mohaiemen

A Conversation with Khalil Rabah

Somewhere between the hyped-up essentialist consumption of “subversive” work by an ever-hungry art industry and the very serious task of engaging with the issues of Palestinian nationhood and representation.

Mai Abu Eldahab

A Conversation with Ahmed Alaidy

How to be famously underground: on literary irreverence, the vernaculars of international consumer culture and Cairo streets, and the fantasies of microbus drivers and their passengers.

Mustafa Zikri

A Conversation with Mohammed Fares

“The Russians played me songs by Fayrouz to help me relax!” A former Syrian fighter pilot—one of only two Arabs to have ventured into space—speaks about life in the stars and the lessons he brought home with him.

Hugh Macleod

A Conversation with Ali-Reza Sami-Azar

The Iranian avant-garde, globalism, museums, and the uneasy relationship between culture and official ideology in the wake of Mohammad Khatami’s rule.

Christopher de Bellaigue

A Conversation with Eva Munz

Traveling to North Korea to capture the Confucian simulations of Kim Jong Il — a fervent cineaste, a proponent of intricate rules and regulations, an unparalleled wine collector, a major Mazda fan, and “the producer from hell.”

Mauricio Guillen

Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East

The (if one is to be kind) misguided curatorial decision to introduce the exhibition in this format underlines the problematic nature of the endeavor.

Hassan Khan

A Conversation with Anna Boghiguian

Cairo scenery, the vicissitudes of the workday, the importance of rest, the difficulty of socializing, and making art for the one percent. “Something old, or ancient, and yet shining from within.”

Robert Shapazian

A Conversation with Homi K. Bhabha

How do you conduct a good interview with a walking institution? Someone who was part of your grad school postcolonial pantheon?

Tirdad Zolghadr

A Conversation with Dr. Saad Bashir Eskander

Dr.

Deena Chalabi

A Conversation with Trevor Paglen

On the use of new media by jihadists, the discovery of secret military bases, extraordinary rendition, and the clandestine circulation of information. “You find aircraft companies whose boards of directors are composed of non-existent people. You find non-existent people who are somehow designed to disappear others.”

Thomas Keenan

A Conversation with Rem Koolhaas

The future of Middle Eastern cities, the “kinetic elite,” and the changing nature of architects building internationally. “I imagine that at some point an all-encompassing project will fall in our laps.”

Markus Miessen